Fabrice Muamba: Sorry I am on the other side now

Arsene Wenger had to double-take when he saw who was asking the question after Arsenal beat Newcastle at the Emirates on Monday.

I saw him later and he said: "What are you doing asking me a question?"

"I'm on the other side now Arsene," I replied. That was funny.

Journalists do not normally have the best relationship with football players or managers but being in the media's shoes for a week you could see the amount of pressure they are under in order to deliver good pieces to a tight deadline.

And the feeling you get from seeing your work in the paper the next day is overwhelming. I am still buzzing from my first pieces as you can imagine - I am a rookie after all. It is similar to football, when you are working hard in the training ground, then given a chance to start a first-team game and you end up scoring. That feeling right there cannot be replaced.

One of my first tasks was to write a piece on Jose Mourinho - which I wasn't expecting to do - but I guess the only way I was going to learn the trade properly was by dealing with unexpected situations like this.

I covered two games while working at the Express, with four journalists, including myself, in one of those matches - the Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid at Stamford Bridge.

Each one of us had specific angles to write or do a feature on one player. I found that you don't get to watch the second half in any game because you're busy writing and speaking to the desk to make sure they have received your copy.

If there's a goal, or the game has gone to extra-time, or the internet is not working when you've already submitted your work to the office... that is a nightmare I haven't come across yet.

The mixed zone [where press and players cross paths] and press conferences can be a positive or negative experience - it really depends on the team's result.

After the Chelsea game, I found that the experienced players will say a few words to the press but young players or squad players will just ignore them. And that can leave journalists in trouble because it means they do not have quotes to back up their articles.

Sometimes, however, foreign players speak to native journalists and that information can be shared with the English press.

Covering a European game is completely different than any Premier League match; you have a number of media from different countries in the same press box all battling it out to write they own pieces.

But I found is information was passing around between different journalists and there was not any bitter rivalry among them at all.

My task at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night was to provide the player ratings - a challenge I found a bit tricky. You really only have a few words to describe each player's performance - but then I still have mates who are playing so I wasn't quite sure what kind of mark I should be giving them! I learned quickly that you cannot please everyone.

I must say, the perspective of the football media the players have them is wrong.

Journalists are doing a job under huge pressure so words can be delivered on time and having no quotes from players can be disheartening for my new friends. But it's part of the job sometimes that things will not always go according to plan.

And I also have to say that one of the most important people in the newspaper is the sub-editor. They are never mentioned anywhere in the paper but they play a key role in structuring and double checking that everything is in the right place.

It is like anything in life, the more you practice, the better you will get. The more I wrote the better I became. It takes time but I am determined to have a positive approach toward this new challenge, regardless of what setbacks come my way.